Something's not right here...
Atlanta used to host a
Midtown Music Festival in the Spring.
It was only a 5 hour drive so I attended for several years.
Never did check into this hotel though.
Something about it bothered me.
I have stayed in the 70-story Westin Peachtree Plaza downtown. I rode the elevator up to the top for the view - and drinks - but my room was only around 50 floors up.
Looks like I'll be heading over to Atlanta again this spring but not for the Midtown Festival.
Apparently it was losing money and was canceled a few years ago.
I'll be driving there for a
Craig Ferguson stand-up concert.
He is the comedy star of Late, Late night television and is about to tape (er, um, sorry, of course the show is LIVE) perform his 1,000th show.
When his show is a rerun (LIVE - Repeated?) during holiday weeks, he goes on the road and I'll be able to see him perform LIVE on stage.
Here is the funniest carpet picture I've ever taken in an upscale hotel.
Surprise! There was no iron in the closet.
Labels: Atlanta Hilton, Bomb Squad, carpet repair, Craig Ferguson, Late, Late Night TV, Midtown Music Festival, Westin Peachtree Plaza
1900s Glass Slides..and a Laptop Computer
To view 100 year old photographs taken on large glass plates, you handle them carefully by the edges.
And hold them up towards the light.
Yep. That's a black and white image, taken in the early 1900s with a very large and bulky camera perched on a wooden tripod.
The photographer in Georgetown had ducked his head beneath the dark cloth draped over the back and clicked the shutter.
It was a magic moment captured forever.
One could print paper copies to pass around or transfer the slides to a flash card so you could run them through a computer and project them onto a large screen.
At the monthly meeting, members of our
photography group heard an interesting talk by
Ethel Nepveux when she and husband Felix brought photos on glass slides from the Trenholm Collection, her family's century old little treasure.
The monthly meeting had a problem though: the 21st century video projector & computer had not arrived. We didn't have a way to electronically look at these nor at any of the other pictures members had brought for our popular monthly SHOW & TELL.
Ethel said quietly
"Well, I do have a laptop computer out in the car."
(See some more of glass slides images and the members' colorful pictures on the
SHOW & TELL. Scroll down to the Dec 9 meeting.)
Labels: 8 x 10 camera, Ethel and Felix Nepveux, Georgetown, glass slides, laptop computer, Navt blimp, Trenholm Pictures
Tickets and Christmas cards...
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Well, if I HAD bought a ticket I probably would be wishing I had saved it.
My newspaper had sent me there to cover the concert, so my press credentials had passed me through the front gate.
Even right down on the field, standing next to the stage, I could barely hear the
Fab Four. The continuous roar of the overwhelming crowd noise almost completely drowned them out.
They sang song after song and I was close enough I could see them glance and grin at each other. They were having a good time that night in San Diego.
Up in the stands, as I wandered around with my cameras, the screaming, crying happy young girls were REALLY making a racket. Probably the way it would be if I went to see a
"Twilight" movie these days.
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I came across this copy I had found on the internet of a ticket to that very loud
Beatles concert.
The Christmas season is coming up fast so I was looking through my old newspaper days files, searching for the very first holiday card the photo staff sent out.
Yep. The card with our "mug shots" on it was my idea and I'm pleased they continued making one yearly long after I had moved on. The quality improved each year.
But - this was the first one.
Labels: Balboa Stadium, Fab Four, holiday card, mug shot, The Beatles
Everything changes...
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I grew up downtown on the peninsula in the area called
Ansonborough.
The house is on Meeting at Society Street in the
"Old" area where my boyhood friends and I were tenants.
Maybe one or two families owned their homes, but mainly, we all were renting back then in the 1950s.
My two brothers and I went to grade school at St. Joseph's around the corner on Anson Street, and then walked up to Broad and Queen Streets to attend Cathedral Grammar school.
We all three graduated from Bishop England high school - walking in the other direction - on Calhoun Street.
All of those schools are gone now.
The Anson Street building is still there but is no longer a school. The others have been torn down.
I passed my old house the other day at the corner of Meeting Street and apparently it's awaiting BAR approval of paint samples displayed on the front and sides.
It also is no longer
270 Meeting Street. The address has been changed to Society Street.
We seldom used the front door so I'm glad the back entrance is now officially recognized.
Even by the mailman..
Labels: Anson Street, Ansonborough, Broad Street, Meeting Street, Queen Street. Cathedral Grammar School
What was said / What was heard.....
It's a shame there's no photo of an unusual Folly Beach dining experience that I had about 12 year ago. No camera was handy when the meal was eventually served.
This classic internet picture of Center Street dates back a few more years than that but it's all I could find.
The restaurant (unnamed and non existent now) had a great beach view from its deck and after enjoying a pleasant sunny afternoon, my date and I went inside for dinner.
I don't remember the actual meal - in light of what happened - but I assume it was either fish or something else from the sea fried or baked, served with potatoes. I do know she asked for
Irish coffee with the meal and everyone said "no problem."
She then quietly asked the very young waiter to please
serve the Bailey's on the side. He said "sure" and took off for the kitchen.
He was gone a long time. He had disappeared but the beer was cold and the outing was fun.
We chatted with other diners, talked about the beautiful day at the beach and gradually became quiet and concerned about WHEN would we ever eat?
About that moment the flushed waiter finally returns, plates are placed and - with a flourish and genuine pride - he proudly points to the green bay leaves that have been carefully placed around the edge of each plate.
The owner and Chef wandered out to see why bay leaves had to be found and rushed into use. We scratched our heads when they asked and had no answer.
The date sipped her coffee and said
"Where's the Bailey's to add to the coffee?Slowly we all caught on...
Bay-Ley's Irish whiskey for the coffee.
On the side.
Someone rushed to the bar and brought over a bottle.
Labels: Bailey's Irish CreaM, Folly Beach Eatery, plates and platters, Purple Pelican
Taking pictures OF a camera...
Now, this gets tricky.
Wanted to take a picture
OF my camera with a new accessory. But, I only have one camera.
We've all heard the phrase
"smoke & mirrors" so I reached for a mirror.
See the camera in the mirror in the viewfinder. Place the
"Bottle Cap Tripod" in the shot to show plenty of close up detail.
Took this clever device along on my trip to Ireland and Germany and airport security had no problem with it. (Last year I was asked to unpack a small metal tripod which apparently looked like a "stun gun" on the x-ray screen.)
Oh, you noticed. Mirror images are reversed.
Didn't matter on the attachment but reversed lettering on the camera would be an obvious problem.
In
Photoshop I have an "image" control with a setting that allows me to "flip" the image.
I did that for the shot of the camera sitting atop the wine bottle.
Did NOT reverse/flip the top picture or the reversed mirror image would not have been apparent. Now it is.
Wine not included.
(Click on photos to see enlarged details.)
Labels: airport security, bottle cap tripod, mirror image, stun gun, TAS, wine bottle
Tootin' Your Horn.....
This was not really
MY horn.
And this is more of a flute than a horn.
I came across some more pictures from my 1970s days at
Universal Studios. My job was to promote and publicize the new Tour.
Well, not with this horn/flute. I was just roaming around the Props section of the studio
Back Lot.
One of the Tour trams is parked in the background.
When I visited Los Angeles a few years ago and took the Tour, the 3-car trams were just about the only thing that had not changed in nearly 40 years.
I did not see a giant cell phone or ipod.
Or a push-button telephone.
When this large phone was placed up at the Tour Center, it had a sign saying "Keep Off."
I had suggested saying "Don't Touch That Dial."
Labels: flute, horn, ipod, rotary dial phone, tour tram
Things Used To Be simpler..and larger
I have three
Canon AE-1 film cameras that are dusty. They have not been used for about 5 years.
Back in 2004 was when I bought my first digital camera. I would no longer need film.
The "memory card" that was included showed a capacity of
8MB.
According to a chart that came with my new 2 megapixel camera, the card could store about 12 pictures.
Hmmmm. Back in the 1950s, I had a camera - a film one - that could take 12 black & white pictures on a roll. Then you dropped it at the drug store for processing and printing.
In about a week, you came back and picked up the prints. As I remember, they were in a yellow Kodak envelope.
Usually a few were blurred and some were pitch black because the bulb didn't flash.
Telephone poles and other weird objects often sprouted from heads because you forget to check the background.
I bought my third digital camera a few months ago and it takes pictures in
8.1 megapixels.
The memory card I bought is a
4 Gig and the camera shows me I can take about 1,100 pictures.
On a 2-week vacation to Ireland and Germany I filled three
2 Gig memory cards. That's 1700 pictures.
Now, of course, people are taking pictures with their telephones, laptops and netbooks. Hope they check the background.
Labels: 2 Gig, 2.0 megapixel, 4 Gig, 8.1 megapixel, Kodak, laptops, memory cards, netbooks
Happy Veterans Day
Yes I'm a veteran.
In honor of the day (and the fact that yesterday was the 234th birthday of the US Marine Corps), I proudly put on a favorite t-shirt.
While visiting my Mom at a nursing home, I was stopped by a lady who asked
"Oh, do you work for the Medical University of South Carolina?"I hope she was merely dyslectic.
My answer was very polite and truthful.
Semper Fi, vets.
Labels: dyslectic, MUSC, Semper Fi, USMC
This is NOT your pilot speaking....
Flying on Aer Lingus recently, I was reminded of the time I held the microphone and talked to a planeload of startled passengers.
When a Convention Bureau goes after a group to come to their city, it tries to show ingenuity whenever possible.
Off the wall works too.
So the Committee to select where the
1980 Republican National Convention would be held came aboard the plane in Dallas, Texas after several days of being wined and dined by Texans who wanted the convention.
I was with the Kansas City Convention Bureau and we wanted the GOP back again after they had met successfully in KC in 1976.(Remember the
Ford/Dole ticket? Jimmy Carter creamed them.)
As long as the group was in Texas, we held back from tooting our horn. It would have been bad form to intrude or interfere there. But, as soon as the plane buttoned up, they were subject to our message and it began immediately.
There were straw "skimmer" hats placed on each seat with a red, white and blue hat band and the GOP elephant featured very prominently...right next to the
KC,MO 1980 logo. Colorful bunting was draped around the cabin as well and KC/GOP campaign-type buttons were being passed around.
I clicked on the microphone and introduced myself as being with the Bureau and asked everyone to welcome the members of the GOP Selection Committee who were on board in their midst. Some applauded.
To our knowledge, this kind of airborne pitch had never been done before.
I quickly added that since we all were headed up to Missouri, we had arranged to have the inflight meal changed to a
Kansas City Strip steak with all the trimmings.
Then
"Going to Kansas City...." music started playing.
Later, of course, Detroit, Michigan won the convention and a fellow named
Ronald Reagan became President.
(I borrowed the steak picture from the internet and, truth be told, the airline served its regular steak. WE just called it a KC strip.)
Labels: 1976, 1980, George Bush, Gerald Ford, GOP National Convention, KC Strip steak, President Jimmy Carter, Robert Dole, Ronald Reagan
Atlanta used to host a Midtown Music Festival in the Spring.
Here is the funniest carpet picture I've ever taken in an upscale hotel. 
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